Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle coming to an end

Tsubasa: Reservior Chronicle's final chapter is set to run in the September 30th issue of Shonen Magazine. The series will end up having 29 volumes, I believe. Don't know what's going on in the storyline at all, but here's hoping CLAMP finishes it in a satisfying manner. I guess xxxholic's end can't be too far off either. But then again, I've never read it, so I don't know how strongly it's main story is connected to Tsubasa's. I want to start reading it soon (CLAMP's little crossover ploy works). Maybe they'll finish X now?

It seems like Del Rey might be fast-tracking Tsubasa's release a tiny bit, as they're releasing the next two volumes, 23 and 24(and an artbook), simultaneously in October.

(info from Ritual Scan Forge)

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle vol.21

The flashback continues! This time showing us how Fai came to be in Seresu, and what made him leave (basically, Ashura is a coldblooded fiend...or is he? [He is.]) Kurogane tries to snap Fai out of his pity party by drawing his sword against him (!!!), and once snapped out, Fai dukes it out with Ashura as more of his past is revealed and Sakura's body is in danger.

I finished this volume feeling confused. Part of it was visual, part of it was story. While it really was a treat to see Kurogane and Fai actually fight each other, that, along with Fai fighting Ashura, were kind of hard to make complete sense of in one reading. I've never had a problem with CLAMP's actions scenes before, but this time there just seemed to be way too many magic swoops and swirls (even more than usual). This hurt things a lot, especially near the end of the volume, where a bunch of black swirls spread out everywhere. I eventually realized this was supposed to be some sort of sphere closing in around them, but it was very hard to notice that until the end of that particular sequence. Don't get me wrong, there are still some nice visual moments throughout the volume (this is CLAMP), but there were just as many moments where the effects were overdone, and ended up hurting the clarity of some scenes. There was also this bit (when Kurogane first draws his sword), where Kurogane slashes and all of sudden the area he slices cracks like a glass wall, and a bunch of shards fall, each with an image from Fai's past. The effect was nifty, but I couldn't help wondering...where did that wall come from???? Was it some sort of projector screen where they were viewing Fai's past? If so, there was no evidence of that at all in this or the previous volume, until Kurogane broke it.

There were also some story elements that just seemed iffy. It seems like Fai's memories were tampered with, but because no one ever says this outright(well...Fei Wang says something to that effect near the end), it makes things kind of confusing. The biggest point of confusion involved the curses, though. Fai's first curse was that he'd kill someone with more magic power than him, and that one's already been activated and done with. At the end of the previous volume, Fei Wang says something along the lines of "Your second curse, you need not remember it. From here on you will be trumping moves of my plan," which makes it sound like the "trumping" is the second curse, meaning Fai would be his puppet. But then the second curse activates near the end of this book and it's something completely different, which threw me for a loop. It took a trip to Wikipedia (at the risk of spoilers!) to sort things out. The problem was the bit in the previous volume. It seems that in between the "second curse" phrase and the "trumping" phrase, there was some block of memory that was censored. The problem was, there was nothing that visually or textually implied that, making it seem like the second phrase followed right after the other. Maybe that was their intent, though. Coincidentally, that trip to Wikipedia also cleared up another point brought up in this volume regarding Fai's back tattoo. I shouldn't have to resort to Wiki to understand things. Also, I, and possibly CLAMP, completely forgot that Fai became a vampire not too long ago, so when I remembered that fact, I was kind of surprise that it didn't come up even once in the most Fai-centric story so far.

Essentially, while I'm almost sure there are no gaping plotholes, because of CLAMP's writing style, it feels like there are. I guess by now I should just accept this as CLAMP's style. Show us random things (like Kurogane's completely nonsensical action at the end), and only explain it after we've racked our brains trying to understand it.

All in all, it was a flawed, but not terrible volume. Confusions aside, the storyline was resolved and we got some closure regarding Fai's past, and it was great to finally see Fai going all out.

Now, Yuko, come and explain everything next volume, thanks.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle vol.20

The blurb on the back should say "Fai, you got some 'splainin to do!"

After Fai attacking Sakura and her body and soul being separated and taken to different worlds, the gang has to figure out what the heck is going on and what to do next. As usual, there is the end-of-arc-Yuko-infodump (and as usual, said infodump makes me feel like I should be reading xxxholic). It turns out Fai's actions weren't really done of his own will, but he has known this moment would come. And he has quite a few other secrets he's been keeping and lies he's been telling.
The second half of the book takes place in Fai's old homeworld, where he encounters an old face and we get a lengthy flashback to his childhood and find out even MORE juicy Fai secrets. The volume ends with a surprise which, though it isn't fully explained, will probably make you want to go back and reread some of the earlier volumes.

This volume actually moves a bit slow. Most of the first half is Yuko explaining some of what's been going on, and the group deciding what to do next. It just takes a bit too long for them to actually get going. Those scenes could have moved much quicker. The second half, which is mostly the flashback, is really well done, though. It plays out like a (dark) fantasy story that could stand on its own. Sometimes flashback can be too long, but in this case, Fai has been such a question mark for the past 19 volumes that CLAMP can take as long as they like to fill in the blanks. Despite being the most happy-go-lucky character in the group, Fai probably has the saddest past out of all of them. It shows how much of a front he's had up this whole time.

As of this volume, almost every single character has some sort of double (Syaoran and his "image", Sakura's separated body and soul, Fai and his twin, the two Mokonas, and all the doubles of other characters throughout the different worlds), except for Kurogane (that we know of). I wonder if there's something to that.

Anyways, overall, it was a decent volume. The beginning was a bit slow, but the flashback and all the information being revealed make up for it, and as always, CLAMP's artwork is great.